Molecule's world

Storm Coming

2008-04-11T09:11:00.000+01:00

Good times, noodle salad.

2008-04-11T09:05:00.002+01:00

Last day of work today. Hurrah? It seems strange to be leaving, especially leaving with nothing to go onto at the moment.

It did make me think though of what I have now decided was my best job ever. I only did it for three days so this might not be an entirely objective view but still... it was working in the post room of a large office. All I did all day was sort and deliver post, both internal and external. I got to go walking round the office with a trolley, and the best thing about it was that you knew exactly what you had to do, and exactly when you had to do it.

Good times, there was no noodle salad, that's a line from a film.

It's only been 3 months

2008-04-08T18:06:00.003+01:00

It's only been three months, but since I had only logged in once previously using my new shiny google account I, of course, couldn't remember either my username or password.

There seems to be so much change at the moment, and I feel like I'm struggling to keep up. Getting married, moving to London, leaving a job in Liverpool, finding a job in Liverpool, finding a job in London, moving church for 3 or 4 months and then moving again.

This is not a complaint, it's an exciting time in my life and I am particularly looking forward to being married. Moving to London is a huge opportunity and a chance to find a job that will use the skills I have gained from Creative Training and hopefully be directed more towards my natural strengths. I'm looking forward to being closer to my family and being able to see them for a day, or even an evening rather than the current 200+ mile journey.

There is undeniable sadness involved as well. Pretty much everything that has been constant in my life over the past 8 years or so will change. Last week I left the Tab, my only real church family so far and I will miss being a part of that family. This week I finish at Creative Training, and though this year has been a lot harder than the first, it has been a good experience. It will be strange as well, moving from somewhere that I am blessed with having so many good friends to a new city to start again.

When I last posted, I wasn't engaged, wasn't planning to leave CT, still at the Tab, Beko hadn't been offered a job in London. Who knows what will have happened in another three?

Astrophysical Revolutions

2007-12-24T00:29:00.000Z

I've recently taken up a couple of hours a week of physics tutoring. It has overall been really enjoyable and a great opportunity to brush off the mental cobwebs covering 4 years worth of university education. Unfortunately some bits seem to be completely missing, particularly anything relating to electronics. I don't know which is worse, the bits that I can't remember at all or the bits where the answer takes me so long to get to that I'm glad you can't lose degrees.

Like I said though it has been a generally enjoyable experience and it has reminded me of why I love physics and why I also enjoy teaching (where it's with people who want to learn). I've also learnt a few new things while I've been doing it, and discovered that the European Space Agency have made a revolutionary breakthrough in environmentally friendly telescope design... Genius really.

Dynamic Diversity - Bruce Milne

2007-03-06T22:17:00.000Z

This is part of the preface of one of the best books I read recently, very helpful in terms of thinking about church and how we are called to be distinctive from the world through diversity. Well worth a read.

We are all familiar with a Mexican wave. A sports event is under way in a large stadium. The action on the field is rather boring, when suddenly the spectators in one section of the audience jump to their feet and throw their arms in the air. The next section follows on, and then the next, until the wave has travelled all around the stadium, and back to the beginning, where it may well set off all over again. It’s great fun, and often notably more memorable than what’s happening on the field of play.
Every Sunday of the year a ‘Mexican wave of worship’ travels all around the world. Let me tell you about it. It begins about the time many in the United Kingdom are heading off for bed on Saturday night (and not a few of its pastors are staggering wearily out of their studies). For many North Americans the wave is launched while we are fast asleep. But, just then, in some South Pacific islands, like the ancient Christian Kingdom of Tonga, it’s Sunday morning, and already Christians are up and heading for church, where they are called to worship. They get on their feet, many thousands of them, throwing their hands in the air, as it were, praising God, and crying, ‘Jesus is Lord!’ The wave has begun.
At the very same time, thousands of miles to the north, in the eastern reaches of the former Soviet empire, other groups of believers are doing the same – fewer in number but with no less zeal. Then the wave begins to spread westwards; into New Zealand, and across Australia, through time zone after time zone, millions are now on their feet and joining in. Meanwhile, the worship wave is sweeping down eastern Asia; reaching to the smaller churches of Japan, the teeming congregations of South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia. The living God is being worshipped and his name exalted. Now the wave is into China – how many Christians in China? Only God knows; perhaps a hundred million, province after province, as the wave of worship sweeps on its way around the world.
Now the wave is into India and the great historic churches there, and then surging on through the other southern Asian nations. On and on it moves, across the vast territories of Central Asia and the former Soviet republics, into the Middle East, where little groups of believers are uniting in worship and bravely lifting heart and hand in praise. Now the wave has entered Africa; the ancient churches of Egypt and Ethiopia, and the massive, modern congregations of Uganda, Kenya and Zambia; on down into Southern Africa as millions more are on their feet and the Lord is being exalted. Now the wave is across central Africa and sweeping through the burgeoning congregations in Nigeria, Ghana and the adjoining nations. And all the while Europe has been caught up in it, through time zone after time zone – the Scandinavian lands to the north, the Balkans, Central Europe and the Mediterranean countries to the south, all with their long centuries of faith and tradition; then it’s into Spain and Portugal.
Meanwhile, the worship wave is moving through Britain, by way of congregations large and small, in city and countryside, as UK Christians in turn rise to their feet and join the global throng of worshippers, lifting high the name of Jesus. Now the wave is leaping across the sea to Ireland, Iceland and Greenland, finally arriving on North American soil in the maritime provinces of Canada; and, at the same moment, thousands of kilometres to the south, it is making its landfall in Latin America by way of the bulging projection of Brazil, where it is soon swelled by that nation’s thronging multitudes of exuberant worshippers.
Like an irresistible tide the wave sweeps on, gathering millions more in its train as our ever-blessed, triune God is exalted in praise. On and on it goes, as the sunny islands of the Caribbean get with the beat, down the east coast of the USA amid its teeming populations. Meanwhile, to the south, the wave envelops in turn all the nations of central and western Latin America, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia,
Mexico and the swelling churches of Central America. Across the Canadian prairies it moves, and the Midwest of the USA, and through the Deep South. Finally it arrives at the western states, California, Oregon, Washington, and, within that time zone, at our apparently ‘lazy lot’ in Vancouver, as we too get out of our beds, and assemble in worship, and lift Jesus’ name, and pour out our praises.
And then the wave of worship is on its way again, up to Alaska, and across the Pacific to Hawaii, and, in a final surge, back to the South Sea Islands – and it is over for another week: the worship wave!
It happens without fail every single Sunday, of every month of every year, and all I have done in these paragraphs is to draw attention to it – the international celebration of the global people of God. To be a Christian means to be part of that – somewhere between one and two billion men, women and children, from every nation under the sun, united in a worship experience that encircles the globe. How could anyone miss out on it by choosing to stay in bed?

Fern Seed and elephants

2007-03-06T22:03:00.000Z

This is a story all about how my life got... never mind. All I really want to do is mention a CS Lewis essay that seems to deal well with some of the issues to do with liberal theology. It seemed particularly relevant at Christmas, with that random Channel 4 'documentary' about Jesus' secret family. Lewis writes:

All theology of the liberal type involves at some point - and often involves throughout - the claim that the real behaviour and purpose and teaching of Christ came very rapidly to be misunderstood and misrepresented by his followers, and has been recovered or exhumed only by modern scholars. ... The idea that any man or writer should be opaque to those who lived in the same culture, spoke the same language, shared the same habitual imagery and unconscious assumptions, and yet be transparent to those who have none of these advantages, is in my opinion preposterous. There is an a priori improbability in it which almost no argument and no evidence could counterbalance.

Smashing.

Why the Government doesn't like trees

2006-12-07T22:10:00.000Z

It's true, if the government had it's way, this picture would look a lot more barren:

I find it slightly ironic that, as a person who detests paperwork, I've ended up doing a job that's full of it. For instance today I had to do a review thing that took up 3 pages but only contained about 10 words of relevant information.

This is entirely typical. Each client that we work with has a folder that can contain up to 30 pieces of paperwork, and that doesn't even include attendance records.

The only conclusion that I can draw from this is that the government is in the pay of..... the Beavers!!

Reflection

2006-11-27T23:32:00.000Z

Ha, I'm so clever, I've managed to come up with a post title that includes both what I want to talk about and a picture I'd like to post. Marvellous.

I've been reflecting on something said at the UCCF Graduate Conference (a jolly good wheeze old boy). It was a quote from William Wilberforce:

I am not what I should be
I am not what I want to be
I am not what I will be
but I am not what I was
and by the grace of God I am what I am

I find that I get very focused on the first two ideas, conscious always of my sinfulness and allowing that to drive me away from God. However I have been reflecting on the other 3 ideas, and it has been an encouragement for me.

I am not what I will be. One day I will be presented without blemish, not through my own strength but the power of God working in me, it's a real encouragement when I am tempted to think that I'll never make it, and therefore might as well give up. But no, I am not what I will be, God has promised and he is faithful.

I am not what I was. When I continue to struggle with sin and I wonder initially whether I am really different to how I used to be it's hard for me to make sense of this. However, it makes much more sense when I consider what I was before I was a Christian. I was an enemy of God, an object of his wrath. Thank you Father for saving me.

By the grace of God I am what I am. I'm not the finished article, I won't be until the day I stand before him in heaven. I am mistaken though when I complain to God about who I am now, because it is only by his grace that I can stand at all.

And now, another kind of reflection.

I may be a geek, but I'm not a thief

2006-11-08T12:52:00.000Z

I sometimes wonder what other people are thinking, and how they're reacting to the same events as me. Fireworks night provided me with an insight.

Now I'm the first to admit that I'm a geek, and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. After watching the fireworks for about 5 minutes in Sefton Park I started to wonder how high the big rockets were in the air when they were exploding. Remembering that the speed of sound in air is approximately 340 metres per second, and guessing that I was about 100 m away from where they were being launched I came to a rough estimate that they were 200-250 metres in the air when they were exploding.

My mental thought process was then interrupted by one of the people behind me saying "wow, I wonder how much you could flog that lot for if you nicked them."

Honey I Shrunk Rich Williams

2006-11-03T09:03:00.000Z

This is a story of a tragic accident involving a magnifying glass and a particle accelerator. Mr Williams was unfortunately reduced to half his original size. The only upside we've found so far is that he once again pay child fare on the bus.

We're currently working on a solution, probably involving a rack.

The Opid

2006-10-27T18:57:00.000+01:00

I recently received my first performance related bonus at work. I was harassing my bosses for quite a while about needing an Ipod for all kinds of work related things, and they eventually agreed that they would get me an MP3 player if I could get 70% of our clients into work within 5 weeks. Eventually we got 80% of clients into work within 6 weeks, and I was presented with..... THE OPID.

The Opid is, I suspect, China's answer to the Ipod. One of it's most excellent features is the manual, which has apparently been translated into English by someone who has never spoken/read English before in their life.

So my new debate is this, which of the following 2 phrases seems least relevant to someone seeking guidance on how to use an MP3 player?

The format chemical engineering see first have, the choice" cent area and encrypt" options

OR

The knife man - impulsive punishment:Broadcast the level is smooth to roll over.

I wish I could provide some context for either of those phrases, but the rest of the manual makes no more sense.

of beavers and woodpeckers

2006-10-23T23:05:00.000+01:00

Today we asked the big questions, the ones that really get people thinking...

Our big question was inspired by a tree growing in front of Blue Coat school, that turns a potentially very picturesque view into one that frankly isn't. I postulated that perhaps we could hire a dozen beavers to come and take it down. Then came THE question:

Would 12 beavers knock down a tree faster than 100 woodpeckers could?

This question has been taxing such eminent minds as Richard Williams, Thomas Magnum, Stephanie Gillette and KC Clark. So far... we don't know. My money is on the beavers, with their razor sharp teeth and good team working ethic.

What do you think?

Alpacas

2006-10-18T21:13:00.000+01:00

Today I was reminded that I am the king of blagging. Ask me almost any question and I'll come back with an answer that sounds as though I know what I'm talking about. And some of the time I even do. I also do an excellent line in a combination of luck and guesswork.

So yesterday I was having lunch with Ken, Midders and Beko and the conversation came onto the topic of how Bethanie Amey smelled a bit like a damp Alpaca after her time in Argentina. We then tried to work out what an Alpaca actually is.

"I'm pretty sure the Alpaca is a member of the camel family" say I with typical confidence, to which the instant reply "you're completely blagging that" comes back.

And they were right. Ha, but so was I :-) The Alpaca is indeed a member of the camel family, the camelidae as we discovered this afternoon on Wikipedia.

And so, I am the king of blagging. (Oh and I once read somewhere that the llama is a member of the camel family so took a chance that the alpaca was also in the same family)

Liverpool and perseverance

2006-10-16T22:45:00.000+01:00

Right now I'm feeling pretty annoyed about Liverpool. I fixed a slow puncture in my front tyre this evening which was probably coming from one of the half dozen or so puncture repair patches which were adorning the inner tube. The cunning solution was to replace the inner tube, and to my great joy I successfully completed my journey to housegroup this evening.

However as I had nearly reached our house on my return journey I became aware that my rear tyre was becoming rather bouncy, the classic puncture sign. So yes, I had managed to now get a puncture in my other tyre the same evening I had fixed one, which left me feeling just incredibly frustrated. It things like this that make me want one of two things. 1 is a car or 2 is to go and live somewhere the streets aren't paved with broken glass. Right now I'd prefer 2.

Anyway the whole thing has reminded me of a conversation that I had with Jack and Tom about perseverance on Saturday. I think my view of perseverance normally would go something along the lines of "I'd really enjoy cycling in Liverpool if it wasn't for all the broken glass and things that make it an annoying experience". Naturally I enjoy cycling and would do it but there are specific things that prevent me from doing so.

I think I feel the same way often about my spiritual life, that I could be quite a good Christian if there weren't all these external distractions that lead me away from God, that if I was left to my own purposes I would naturally follow the path that God has set out for me.

Then I remember that "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9)

Also "And he said 'What comes out of person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and they defile a person.'" (Mark 7:20-23)

Naturally I'm not going to follow the path that God has set before me, because naturally I'm lazy and sinful and often both. So in our discussion we were reflecting on a different view of perseverance. Not so much continuing despite continual external pressure but persevering in making the decisions that will keep us on God's path. Persevering in submitting to the Holy Spirit, perservering in reading the Bible, perservering in praying, perservering in making wise decisions like going to bed at a sensible time.

In conclusion the image in my mind is not so much the constant battle with punctures but a different image. I imagine what I'd be like if I had a car. I would know that cycling was better for me, cheaper, often quicker in rush hour and yet my natural tendency would be to drive, puncture or no puncture. And on that note I'm going to head off, try and get an early night so I can wake up and fix my bike :-)

Kite Fun

2006-10-03T17:39:00.000+01:00

Daniel

2006-10-02T20:18:00.000+01:00

Ok, another long time, no post.

This is more of a prayer request than a post. It's about one of the guys involved in youth church. He's made a commitment to follow Christ but comes from a family who have no involvement in church. He has no real Christian friends. He's in a hard place. All of his mates have no interest really in knowing God, and he's under pressure to conform to their patterns of behaviour. We see the battle in his life, and we know there's little more we can do than pray.

Apart from Sunday morning and Kids Club on a Wednesday night he's getting no input. It's in no way a perfect analogy but he makes me think of Daniel, living in a foreign land with those who worship foreign Gods. My prayer is that he will be like Daniel, that he will make a stand for the one true God, and that he will find some Christian friends, a Shadrach, a Meshach, an Abednego who will stand with him. If you have time please remember him in your prayers.

variations on a welsh theme

2006-07-24T23:12:00.000+01:00

So today I've decided to carry on posting Welsh pictures, for two main reasons. 1) I have a lot of Welsh pictures and 2) I have very few other ideas.

So here they are

For those of you who are in a long-term relationship with this blog, you may remember me talking about Super Gran, and this is her. She may look harmless enough, with the knitted cardigan and cup of tea in hand, but don't be fooled. See the expression on her face, that's Super Gran deciding whether to conquer Australia or China next.

This is a Welsh Chapel. And it really is. We must have seen 50 or more chapels that looked exactly like this, there was hardly any variation at all in design. If McDonalds built churches they'd look like this. Simple. Functional. And yet still.... there's something more here than McDonalds.

Last but not least, another picture of my oldest niece Emma, once again demanding to see pictures before I'd even taken them. I was talking to Ben, my brother in law about this. Emma has never known a time without digital photography, for her it's normal to be able to see a picture the moment it's taken. It was interesting having a holiday with 4 generations of my family, and thinking about what each generation accepts as normal that the previous generation would have considered luxury or impossible.

Pictorial Pictures

2006-07-20T19:33:00.000+01:00

Hmmm, can't really be bothered to write too much, what with it being a tad warm here. So I'm going to put in some pictures I took in Wales with my family. Well, I mean I was in the company of my family, not that I took the pictures with them. We didn't have a little huddle round the camera. Perhaps I should have said... never mind.

June

2006-07-04T23:54:00.000+01:00

Ok, I haven't posted since May.
So this is a June recap.

The month started badly. My grandad died on 2nd June of complications related to his cancer.

It goes without saying this was a hard experience, but as I spent time reflecting I was glad that I was able to know him as an adult. When I was a child he was definitely my most scary grandparent, he just didn't find it easy relating to children. However in more recent years I've enjoyed greatly the time I've been able to spend with Nan and Grandad. There's more I could say here, and maybe I will, but this is enough for now.

June was also eventful because I started working for Creative Training which has been a real blessing so far. It's been great to have shape to my life which has been provided by being at work. I've also enjoyed getting to know all the staff and clients, even if there have been a few 'challenging' moments. My responsibilities so far have been helping people who have been unemployed long term to find work, to build relationships with employers who might be looking to take staff on, to develop the website and to perform various other admin functions.

June also featured my 25th birthday, which was not much fun as I was struck down by hayfever. However on the night before we enjoyed some singstar fun with rich, danny and evans. The videos are most entertaining.

And now I'm going to head off because I'm a working man and I need my sleep. I will however leave you with a couple of pictures of my nieces taken on the day of the funeral.

Wedding Tomfoolery

2006-05-28T23:49:00.000+01:00

I have decided that my camera is perfect for weddings. Not only does it's black case perfectly match my suit, it's small size is ideal for tucking away in a pocket.

Yesterday's wedding was the joining of Neil Martin and Liz (now) Martin. It was all good fun, though Jack and I came to the conclusion that people need entertainment during the whole photo taking part of the wedding. Look, pretty pictures...

The Twilight of Atheism quotes

2006-05-20T00:59:00.000+01:00

Hmm, thought I'd put in a couple of quotes from his (Alister McGrath's) concluding section "The Permanent Significance of Atheism"

"Paradoxically, history strongly suggests that those who are attracted to atheism are first repelled by theism. What propels people towards atheism is above all a sense of revulsion against the excesses and failures of organized religion. Atheism is ultimately a worldview of fear - a fear, often merited, of what might happen if religious maniacs were to take over the world. The existence and appeal of atheism in the West is thus largely derivative, mirroring the failings of the churches and specific ways of conceiving the Christian faith."

"In it's most intense and authentic forms, atheism enters a powerful protest against what it sees to be morally or intellectually inferior visions of reality, or institutions grounded in and proclaiming such visions, precisely because they enslave people, preventing them from achieving their true potential. In their place, atheism offered visions of a larger freedom, allowing humanity to throw aside its chains and enter a new and glorious phase in their history. It is perhaps not surprising that many sympathise with Dostoyevsky's character Ivan Karamazov when he respectfully returns God's ticket, in the face of the suffering, pain, and injustice of the world. Christianity must provide answers - good answers - to such fair questions and never assume it can recycle yesterday's answers to today's concerns."

"The rise of atheism in the West was undoubtedly a protest against a corrupted and complacent church, yet paradoxically, it has energised Christianity to reform itself, in ways that seriously erode the credibility of those earlier criticisms. Where atheism criticises, wise Christians move to reform their ways.
The atheist dilemma is that Christianity is a moving target whose trajectory is capable of being redirected without losing its anchor point in the New Testament. And as the theologian John Henry Newman pointed out, Christianity must listen to such criticisms from outside its bounds precisely because listening may be a way of recapturing its vision of the gospel."

"The attraction of a world without God depends on whether the presence of God is seen as a positive matter. For this reason, the appeal and fortunes of atheism do not entirely lie within its own control. If I am to assess the attraction of the atheist vision, I will need to be able to imagine a world with God before coming to any decision. Where religion is seen to oppress, confine, deprive, and limit, atheism may well be seen as offering humanity a larger view of freedom. But where religion manages to anchor itself in the hearts and minds of ordinary people, is sensitive to their needs and concerns, and offers them a better future, the less credible the atheist critique will appear. Believers need to realise that, strange as it may seem, it is they who will have the greatest impact on atheisms future."

The Twilight of Atheism

2006-05-20T00:52:00.000+01:00

I don't know whether my standards for books have dropped or whether I've just been reading a lot of good books recently but I've just finished what I consider to be another cracker. It's called The Twilight of Atheism by Alister McGrath.

It's a survey of the rise and fall of atheism over the past 200 years or so. It looks at the various historical and social factors that caused it to arise as a movement, how it gained approval, how it appealed to people through the arts and the natural sciences. It was a very good read, taught me a lot of stuff. For example I'd always assumed that Nietzche was the ultimate critic of God, but he wasn't really, he criticised Christianity, but said that it was our cultural preference that God should not exist rather than actually making a philosophical argument that that was the case.

He comes to the conclusion that atheism is currently being undermined by two things. One is that atheism is very much linked to a modernist view of the world whereas Western thought is now dominated by postmodernism. The other was that 100 years ago atheism portrayed itself as the great liberator from the oppression and hatred that religion brought. However the 20th century revealed that atheists were at least as capable of oppression and hatred as their religious counterparts, with the Soviet Union being the classic example.

For me, fascinating stuff, very well written, challenging conclusions...

you did WHAT?

2006-05-17T16:58:00.000+01:00

Ha, today is the first day in nearly 25 years that I've dyed my hair.
The occasion: Uefa Champions League Final.
The teams: The Mighty Arsenal vs Barcelona
The hair: Bright Red
The verdict: Frankly ridiculous (Ryan laughed out loud)
The assistant: KC Clark (thanks again)

Look see...

You say WHAT?

2006-05-16T22:22:00.000+01:00

Ah, the many joys of living with Americans. One of the weirdest things is a gradual americanisation of my vocabulary, which tends to blurt out in bits and pieces and leaves me feeling ashamed and nationally insecure.

Echoing some of Rich's post, I'd like to illuminate you on the origin of the aluminum/aluminium debate, again the information comes from Bill Bryson, but this time his book A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is well worth a read.

William Davy, a brilliant young British (naturally) scientist is busy discovering elements such as potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium and strontium. In 1808 Davy isolated a new element and called it alumium. For some reason he thought better of that and changed it to aluminum four years later. Americans dutifully adopted the new term, but many british uers disliked aluminum, pointing out that it disrupted the -ium pattern established by sodium, calcium and strontium, so they added a vowel and a syllable.

This is the origin of the debate. Who has the moral high ground? I just don't know...

BANG

2006-05-07T22:13:00.000+01:00

As I've mentioned previously I help to lead the 11-14s at church. Today we had to do a presentation of what's involved in BANG as part of the ministry fair the church was holding. These are some of the finer photos involved:

On Forgiveness

2006-05-02T20:38:00.000+01:00

Ok dear readers, now is the moment to go and make a cup of tea or other beverage of your choice. This is going to be hefty (i reckon about 15 minutes), but worth it I hope. I was struck hugely by another of CS Lewis's essays, and it seems to have really struck a chord with people i've mentioned it to, so here it is in it's fullness: (hope I'm not breaking copyright by doing this)

We say a great many things in church (and out of church too) without thinking of what we are saying. For instance, we say in the Creed 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins.' I had been saying it for several years before I asked myself why it was in the Creed. At first sight it seems hardly worth putting in. 'If one is a Christian,' I thought, 'of course one believes in the forgiveness of sins. It goes without saying.' But the people who compiled the creed apparently thought this was a part of our belief which we needed to be reminded of every time we went to church. And I have begun to see that, as far as I am concerned, they were right. To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not nearly so easy as I thought. Real belief in it is the sort of thing that very easily slips away if we don't keep on polishing it up.

We believe that God forgives our sins, but also that he will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer; it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of his teaching is clearer: and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to forgive other people's sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don't we shall be forgiven none of our own.

Now it seems to me that we often make a mistake both about God's forgiveness of our sins and about the forgiveness we are told to offer to other people's sins. Take it first about God's forgiveness. I find that when I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking him to do something quite different. I am asking him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. Forgiveness says 'Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology, I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.' But excusing says 'I see that you couldn't help it or didn't mean it, you weren't really to blame.' If one was really not to blame then there is nothing to forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. Of course in dozens of cases, either between God and man, or between one man and another, there may be a mixture of the two. Part of what seemed at first to be the sins turns out to be really nobody's fault and is excused; the bit that is left over is forgiven. If you had a perfect excuse you would not need forgiveness: if the whole of your action needs forgiveness then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call 'asking God's forgiveness' very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is that there usually is some amount of excuse, some 'extenuating circumstances'. We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit with the excuses don't cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses. They may be very bad excuses: we are all too easily satisfied with ourselves.

There are two remedies for this danger. One is to remember that God knows all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real 'extenuating circumstances' there is no fear he will overlook them. Often he must know excuses that we have never thought of, and therefore humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they had thought. All the real excusing he will do. What we have got to take to him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting time by talking about all the parts which can (we think) be excuses. When you go to a doctor, you show him the bit of you that is wrong - say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and eyes and throat are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so; and anyway, if they are really alright, the doctor will know that.

The second remedy is really and truly to believe in the forgiveness of sins. A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses comes from not really believing in it; from thinking that God will not take us to himself again unless he is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our favour. But that would not be forgiveness at all. Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God if we ask for it.

When it comes to the question of forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out there was really no cheating or no bullying.
But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying 'But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.' Exactly: that is precisely what you must forgive. (That doesn't mean you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every trace of resentment in your own heart - every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God's forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too readily, in other people's we do not accept them easily enough. As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think: as regards other men's sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending carefully to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine per cent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one per cent of guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exception and God means what he says.

Congratulations on surviving to the end, I hope that it all made sense and I didn't miss out too many key words in writing it out. Let me know what you think...

And that brings up his half-century, a fine performance from the young man

2006-04-28T10:29:00.000+01:00

Amazingly, this is my 50th post. It doesn't seem possible, and yet...

So, what to talk about? Well, there are a few things in my mind that I've been pondering. The first is a reflection on the comments made on my post about films. Why do we watch films? What is acceptable to watch? I'd appreciate people's thoughts, and then maybe I'll post something more on my reflections...

I've also been thinking about Richard Dawkins, and how much of an idiot he is. As a scientist he should now that his job is not to prescribe to the Universe how it is, but rather to describe it as he finds it. And yet that never seems to be reflected in his philosophy. He says "there can be no God", and thus prescribes the condition of the Universe regardless of evidence. It's a shame.

Finally I've been considering the way that the church has affected our country over hundreds of years, and generally thinking that we have no right to demand Christian laws in this country, and wondering whether we ever did. This does confuse me though, sinful behaviour is harmful and we want to prevent people from harm, but will it make a difference if people aren't hearing the gospel? I remember Graham Daniels saying that we must be accused of lawlessness if we are really presenting grace. I haven't really thought this one through completely, so instead i'll post a random picture.

All things home

2006-04-19T17:08:00.000+01:00

Today I got back to sunny Liverpool after a week at home. I went home on my mum's birthday, which was cool. We had Nepalese food at my sister and brother-in-law's house. Then on Friday DK came down to stay for a few days. We got to see steam trains, Jane Austen's house, random old churches and all sorts of other assorted jollities. Look, I've enclosed pictures.
On Monday DK went away, I went for a nice long walk around Fleet Pond, which used to be fished by monks from Winchester, and was a popular ice skating venue for Londoners fancying a weekend escape. I didn't see any monks or ice.
Then I got to have a pub lunch with some old school friends, most jolly.
Yesterday I saw all my grandparents. Grandad has started his chemotherapy, which has really knocked him sideways. Not good.
Today I've been loading old music onto my computer including but not limited to such musical highlights as Cotton Eye Joe, I Got 5 On It, Spaceman and I Wanna Be a Hippy. From now on, I am the king of the party.

ice creams as big as your head

2006-04-10T02:03:00.000+01:00

Saturday was a day of jollity at the Great British Seaside. The Great British Seaside is a truly British phenomenom, somehow as an island people we feel called to the sea. Indeed, according to the CIA website "because of heavily indented coastline, no location is more than 125 km from tidal waters". A day at the beach is within reach of anyone in the UK. The highlight of the beach.... undoubtedly ice creams bigger than Rich William's head. Look:

I love it when a plan comes together.

2006-04-03T23:56:00.000+01:00

Two posts in one day, ah the jollity. Tonight we had a housegroup meal, and a few of us said we'd bring desserts. I decided to have a second go at something I made last week. This is what the book said it should look like:

And this is what my creation looked like:

And so I love it when a plan comes together. The meal was really good, appreciated just having the time to spend with our group, having a bit of a laugh. The show was completely stolen by the two sons of Mark and Jo, who host our group. Isaac and Jude put on an impressive show in their matching spiderman pyjamas...

Admiral Street

2006-04-03T23:43:00.000+01:00

I like Toxteth.

It's a strange place, certainly strange for me. I remember coming to Liverpool for the first time, my first real trip to the inner city for a true suburbanite. It was an eye opener, but somehow God has called me to be part of the Tab in Toxteth.

One of my favourite parts of travelling to the Tab is Admiral Street, where you get the most amazing view of the cathedral dominating everything.

It's a strange contrast, the grand cathedral and the run down streets. God's been teaching me that the people don't need a huge and glamorous building, and it's been amazing to see how he has used such a small body of believers in Toxteth to reach the local community, but in some ways it also feels like a work that's just beginning. The Tab has learned how to serve the local community, and now we need to learn how to reach them with the gospel.

There are lots of things about Toxteth I still don't understand, or appreciate, but I do like Admiral Street.

giving the people what they want since 1981...

2006-03-18T11:14:00.000Z

Today's post is a competition. Hurrah! I've decided to bow to the immense pressure, and create a caption competition for this picture...

Whoever comes up with the funniest caption will win...... my undying respect and possibly a sticker I pinched from Kids Club. Let the games begin. (plus this allows me blogger laziness for at least a week)

Steinbeck says...

2006-03-14T00:48:00.000Z

"We're a violent people, Cal. Does that seem strange to you that I include myself? Maybe it's true that we are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous. If our ancestors had not been that, they would have stayed in their home plots in the other world and starved over squeezed-out soil."

"That's why I include myself. We all have that heritage, no matter what old land our fathers left. All colors and breeds of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed, selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful - we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers. We boast and are impressed. We're oversentimental and realistic. We are mundane and materialistic - and do you know of any other nation that acts for ideals? We eat too much. We have no taste, no sense of proportion. We throw our energy about like waste. In the old lands they say of us that we go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening culture. Can it be that our critics have not the key or language of our culture?"

Welcome to Siberia...

2006-03-12T20:01:00.000Z

We have been promised that one of the consequences of global warming will be more volatile weather. Today it delivered, with more snow than I can ever remember seeing in England. Sefton Park is a beautiful place anytime, but with the snow it was fun...

The Brits weren't going to be put off by a mere bit of snow though, I particularly admired the guy with the walking stick.

Look, more snow, and some water too. Seemed strange that we had so much snow but the pond hadn't frozen over.

I wasn't sure if these critters were fighting or just trying to do some exercises to keep warm.

Last but not least, I think this was some of the most fun I've ever had on a bike, so much opportunity for skidding and getting the wheels spinning. Also you could ride straight into a big drift, climb off and the bike would stay standing.... Love it.

A grand day out

2006-03-09T00:30:00.000Z

In yesterday's news, I had my UCCF staff interview. What joy, what boundless happiness was in my heart as I rose from my slumbers at 5:00. At 5:30 I began my intrepid journey, I knew I had to catch a 6:27 train, so decided to wait for a bus until 5:50, and after that I would take a taxi to make sure I didn't miss the train. I think it was the beginning of an exercise in trusting God, as the bus duely appeared at 5:49, just as I was making my other plans. This pic shows the beautiful Lime Street Station at 6:13am.

Ah, the many wonders of travelling by train, not least the opportunity for reading. I combined a potent combination of the Bible, The Purpose Driven Life, and East of Eden. Intoxicating stuff, especially at that hour. Behold the wonderfully blurry british countryside in the early morning:

Feel the power, feel the roar. I ended up deposited at a grey and rainy Leicester at 8:50, with 40 minutes before I needed to appear at UCCF HQ. I stepped from the station with not a clue as to how I would spend that time, looked around, and saw a familiar face. The face belonged to one Tim Dennis, a guy I have literally known since I was knee high to a grasshopper, as we grew up in the same church. Ha, wonderful surpise! It turns out he's also in Leicester for an interview with UCCF, so we're able to spend the 40 minutes catching up on life. Then it was onwards towards our target, being menly men we were determined not to ask directions or use a map, and so we nearly missed our destination, the understated UCCF HQ:

The next 6 and a half hours were spent in presentations and interviews of various kinds. It was actually a very positive experience, being able to joke and talk with the other candidates, feeling that the whole day was about God leading the right people to the right positions, rather than a great big rat race. Also, only UCCF would thank candidates for attending a mandatory interview by giving them a book. I love those people :-)

Then, it was the homeward journey. I got to spend a fair bit of it with an American guy called Dan, who was also there for an interview. He was travelling back to Glasgow, and we discovered a shared interest in apologetics and literature. It was a great time. And then back to Liverpool, which looked suspiciously similar to the way it had been 12 hours before:

East of Eden

2006-03-06T14:38:00.000Z

I'm currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It's an awesome book, and this bit made me laugh a lot:

Olive had great courage. Perhaps it takes courage to raise children. And I must tell you what she did about the First World War. Her thinking was not international. Her first boundary was the geography of her family, second her town, Salinas, and finally there was a dotted line, not clearly defined, which was the county line. Thus she did not quite believe in the war, even when Troop C, our militia cavalry, was called out, loaded its horses on a train, and set out for the open world.
Martin Hopps lived around the corner from us. He was wide, short, red-haired. His mouth was wide, and he had red eyes. He was almost the shyest boy in Salinas. To say good morning to him was to make him itch with self-consciousness. He belonged to Troop C because the armory had a basketball court.
If the Germans had known Olive and had been sensible they would have gone out of their way not to anger her. But they didn't know or they were stupid. When they killed Martin Hopps they lost the war because that made my mother mad and she took out after them. She had liked Martin Hopps. He had never hurt anyone. When they killed him Olive declared war on the German empire.

Good book, interesting views on sin, hopefully they'll become more developed as the book goes on...

What a difference a day makes

2006-03-03T11:41:00.000Z

On Wednesday Liverpool seemed to be heading gently towards Spring.

On Thursday we returned to a very surprising Winter wonderland. Which was nice.

That DK, he's so hot right now.

2006-03-01T00:08:00.000Z

At last, a photographic tribute to the wonderful Danny Kwon, showing his great versatility. Fortunately we were able to resist his suggestion of pictures showing him making coffee wearing just his underwear. Maybe next time....

new toy

2006-02-28T15:15:00.000Z

I now have my christmas present from my parents, which is a digital camera, hurrah!

These two young ladies are my nieces, Emma in the tiger pyjamas, and Beth. Ha, it's not the best picture in the world, but a starting point.

Life at home

2006-02-27T00:21:00.000Z

Well, I've not posted for a bit, and now I'm at home and feel I could write an essay.

I love to come home, it's an amazing blessing to see my family. I have two beautiful nieces, who thanks to the wonders of digital photography will shortly be appearing here. It's great to see my sister, brother in law, and my parents who have done more for me than I could ever write down.

And now, almost a year after I came home for my Grandpa's funeral, I've come home to find my Grandad has cancer. They've removed the primary tumour from the colon, but there are secondaries in the liver and spleen. It's not good.

These are the strange days, the days where it's tempting to weigh up the blessings and the hardships in life and try to work out whether things are going well or badly. It's hard, so many things to consider. And these are the days when it pays to listen to Paul, when he says that he considers the suffering of this would not worth comparing the glory to come.

Is that enough? On Monday that was fine, today it's hard.

"Dualism is a truncated metaphysic"

2006-02-10T01:01:00.000Z

It really is, but I just wanted to make that my post title because it looks really scary. Why did I choose it as a title? It was because that was the most memorable one off sentence that I read this week by CS Lewis. I've been doing a lot of reading this week down in beautiful Birmingham, but that's another story for another day. I really wanted to write about the most amazing thing I read this week (apart from the Bible), which is an essay called The Weight of Glory by CS Lewis.

IT IS MIND BLOWINGLY GOOD!

I'm going to include some of my favourite extracts, but I really recommend you spend some time reading the whole thing. (It can be found at http://www.doxaweb.com/assets/doxa.pdf#search=) It's the best thing I've read about understanding how we can relate to heaven now, and how the future glory should inspire us in evangelism today.

At the conclusion of the essay he says this, which will make more sense once you've read the rest:

Meanwhile the cross comes before the
crown and tomorrow is a Monday
morning. A cleft has opened in the pitiless
walls of the world, and we are invited to
follow our great Captain inside. The
following Him is, of course, the essential
point. That being so, it may be asked what
practical use there is in the speculations
which I have been indulging. I can think
of at least one such use. It may be possible
for each to think too much of his own
potential glory hereafter; it is hardly
possible for him to think too often or too
deeply about that of his neighbour. The
load, or weight, or burden of my
neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on
my back, a load so heavy that only
humility can carry it, and the backs of the
proud will be broken. It is a serious thing
to live in a society of possible gods and
goddesses, to remember that the dullest
and most uninteresting person you talk to
may one day be a creature which, if you
saw it now, you would be strongly tempted
to worship, or else a horror and a
corruption such as you now meet, if at all,
only in a nightmare. All day long we are,
in some degree, helping each other to one
or other of these destinations. It is in the
light of these overwhelming possibilities, it
is with the awe and the circumspection
proper to them, that we should conduct all
our dealings with one another, all
friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have
never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,
cultures, arts, civilization—these are
mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of
a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke
with, work with, marry, snub, and
exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting
splendours. This does not mean that we
are to be perpetually solemn. We must
play. But our merriment must be of that
kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind)
which exists between people who have,
from the outset, taken each other
seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no
presumption. And our charity must be a
real and costly love, with deep feeling for
the sins in spite of which we love the
sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence
which parodies love as flippancy parodies
merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament
itself, your neighbour is the holiest object
presented to your senses. If he is your
Christian neighbour he is holy in almost
the same way, for in him also Christ vere
latitat—the glorifier and the glorified,
Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

A Lyrical Break

2006-02-03T12:15:00.000Z

I'm off to Birmingham today for the Agape National Student Conference. Hurrah. I'll continue with my other thoughts when I return, but I wanted to leave this in my absence. It's called A Song of Patriotic Prejudice, and these are the lyrics:

The English, the English, the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest.

The rottenest bits of these islands of ours
We've left in the hands of three unfriendly powers
Examine the Irishman, Welshman or Scot
You'll find he's a stinker, as likely as not.

Och aye, awa' wi' yon Edinburgh Festival

The Scotsman is mean, as we're all well aware
And bony and blotchy and covered with hair
He eats salty porridge, he works all the day
And he hasn't got bishops to show him the way!

The English, the English, the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest.

Ah hit me old mother over the head with a shillelagh

The Irishman now out contempt is beneath
He sleeps in his boots and he lies through his teeth
He blows up policemen, or so I have heard
And blames it on Cromwell and William the Third!

The English are noble, the English are nice,
And worth any other at double the price

Ah, iechyd da

The Welshman's dishonest and cheats when he can
And little and dark, more like monkey than man
He works underground with a lamp in his hat
And he sings far too loud, far too often, and flat!

And crossing the Channel, one cannot say much
Of French and the Spanish, the Danish or Dutch
The Germans are German, the Russians are red,
And the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed!

The English are moral, the English are good
And clever and modest and misunderstood.

And all the world over, each nation's the same
They've simply no notion of playing the game
They argue with umpires, they cheer when they've won
And they practice beforehand which ruins the fun!

The English, the English, the English are best
So up with the English and down with the rest.

It's not that they're wicked or natuarally bad
It's knowing they're foreign that makes them so mad!

For the English are all that a nation should be,
And the flower of the English are (insert singing partner's name) and Me!

Of Monkeys and Men.

2006-02-02T23:22:00.000Z

Ok. I've been thinking more about the Intelligent Design (ID) thing, and I've decided to split it into four seperate posts, to avoid writing one absurdly long post. There are four main things that I've been thinking about and they are:
1) What's the underlying philosophical basis for ID?
2) What's the scientific case for ID?
3) My own thoughts/opinions on ID (haha, I'll need to have some by then.)
4) How does ID fit into the area of apologetics, and evangelism generally?

Now I've tied myself down to some kind of writing programme, I guess I should try and approach the first point. It's at this point that I'd like to make a disclaimer that I can't promise that what follows will be either accurate or interesting, but I'll do my best.

And so, what is the underlying philsophical basis for ID?
One of the most important concepts that is being disputed is methodological naturalism. What, I head you scream, is methodological naturalism? Well it basically says that when trying to explain physical phenomena you should look for a natural explanation. For example if an apple falls on my head I should try to discover some kind of natural explanation as to why it happened.

This is where the controversy starts. Methodological naturalism actually says you can only look for natural causes to phenomena. Is this a reasonable conclusion? The argument put forward by the proponents of ID is that it is reasonable and normal in our everyday experience to explain phenomena as being the result of intelligent action. This is the basis for fields like forensics where the aim is to determine whether an event had a natural cause or whether there an intelligent agency behind the events. Did they fall or were they pushed?

Other examples given are films like Contact where they receive an extraterrestial broadcast made up of the sequence of prime numbers. The conclusion made is that this must be the result of intelligent action.

Can we extend this logic to the natural sciences? Can we reasonably conclude intelligent action from data that we observe in the world around us? Logically there's no reason as to why we shouldn't.

My conclusion is that there is no underlying philosophical reason as to why we shouldn't be able to make reference to an intelligent agency when we are doing scientific experiments. How does that work in practice? Well, that's another consideration for another day.

In other news it's been fantastic today to have the team returning to Blighty bringing with the them the Salerno team. Great to see y'all.

Family Film Fun.

2006-02-01T00:57:00.000Z

My friend Derek came over for lunch today. It was good to see him, we had a good chat about various topics including our favourite films. He was shocked and disappointed to hear that I considered both Braveheart and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves to be films of dubious merit.

He asked me to explain myself at conversational gunpoint. As I thought about it I came to the conclusion that the thing I really don't like in those films is that the characters are all so unreal. They're either all good or all bad. Robin Hood is perfect, so perfect that even when he catapults himself over a wall he manages to land handily in a pile of straw. Similarly in Braveheart the Scottish are unfailingly noble, caring and loving, carrying out extreme violence only because they've been needly oppressed by the inevitably cruel and heartless English.

However I do really like films like American Beauty and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest because the characters are so much more interesting, they're neither all good or all bad. Also I really like Jack Nicholson and Kevin Spacey, top quality actors. Plus you don't have the guarantee of a happy ending.

And so Braveheart bad, American Beauty good.

Big deep thinking.

2006-01-30T21:28:00.000Z

I've been trying to write a post on Intelligent Design, and whether or not it's a valid scientific theory. And it's difficult. It's a huge subject area, I've been doing so much reading and I'm still not quite sure what I stand. At the moment as I see it the biggest issue I have with ID is whether it's a theory that is truly falsifiable.

A much simpler theory to prove is that it truly is a STUPID idea to play badminton with a bad foot. It really is.

Not for cat lovers

2006-01-24T00:22:00.000Z

I found this game rather randomly. I like it. I don't like cats.

http://www.addictinggames.com/kittencannon.html

The wisdom of Lenhoff

2006-01-23T21:21:00.000Z

I've decided to interrupt my Sri Lankan series to share with you a snippet of the wonderful wisdom that frequently emanates from Brittney Lenhoff. This wisdom comes like a volcano, unexpected in the night. We have a saying in my country; the Lenhoff feeds on the carcasses of the young, and the blood drips down. This is why we should listen to her wisdom:

"Yeah, who needs the Geneva convention? The Swiss are crazy anyway, caves in mountains, nothing that is done there can be trusted."

Sigirya

2006-01-19T22:01:00.000Z

Having spent yesterday writing about some of Sri Lanka's hazards, I feel today I should take a more positive light. So I'm going to write about Sigirya, which is honestly awesome. Look!

The rock is 200m tall, and completely dominates the surrounding area. It formed the palace of the king at the end of the 5th Century AD. I think that the king used to live at the top, and then all his servants and everyone else lived in the grounds below. It has a moat, and a rock shaped like a cobra, and when you go up the final bit to the top you go through a huge stone pair of lion's feet, which originally had a mouth as well. So you got to the top by walking into the mouth of a lion. How cool is that?

Also there is a stone mirror, which doesn't really work, and cool fresco painting things, and lot's of very rusty iron staircases that were installed by the British in Victorian times that cover sections that have been destroyed.

I've been there twice, the first time was in the middle of the afternoon, and it was heaving with tourists, an absolute nightmare. It was still amazing, especially getting to the top for the first time. The second time I went we were smarter though, and set off from our hotel so that we got there at 7:30am. It was empty, we were pretty much the only people there, able to spend as much time as we looked seeing everything, then we got to the top. It was glorious, it was unbelievably clear, warm without being hot, and there were just the three of us up there. We actually did feel like the rulers of all we could survey. It must have been a great palace to have.

And so... one of my favourite places in Sri Lanka. I'm taking bookings for tours....

Sri Lankan Driving

2006-01-18T22:03:00.000Z

Ok, to continue with part two of this special Sri Lankan series I thought I'd talk about one of the islands most notable features: it's drivers.

Although I'm not a big fan of drivers in Liverpool, and their particular fear of indicating, they are just not in the same league as Sri Lankans when it comes to driving. Obviously they aren't helped by the fact that there are no laws on vehicle maintenance, so if it drives, you can drive it. This means you get an incredible variety of vehicles on the road, from world war 2 era lorries to 1960's English Morris Minors and Hillman Imps, to little 3 wheel tut tuts, to all kinds of Japanese cars and 'wans'.

Add to this heady mix the fact that I'm not sure that there exists such a thing as a Highway Code in Sri Lanka, and you get a recipe for chaos. Here are my favourite 3 Sri Lankan driving stories.

1) Driving into Colombo in Rodney's car with his two sons and one of their friends as passengers. We were going to test out the first McDonalds to be opened in the whole island, well sometimes you just have to. Anyway once we'd eaten there we were going to head to a really cool ice cream shop, but as we were heading to a roundabout I noticed there was a bit of a problem. I'd taken my foot off the accelerator, but the car wasn't slowing down, in fact it was accelerating. I managed to slam on the brakes and somehow get round, but I realised we had a problem. In the end I had to drive back from Colombo to Kandana, a distance of about 15 miles with the throttle stuck fully open the whole time. It was lots of fun, and required a good mix of changing gears, trying not to destroy the brakes and messing with the clutch, but we got there.

2) Driving back from the hill country late at night after having spent a couple of days doing outreach, I had the joy of driving the 'wan' down about 4,000 feet over about 50 miles with no brake pads, which meant slowing for hairpin bends was a definite challenge. It was again with immense relief that we got home in one piece.

3) Sri Lankan bus drivers own the road. They must, considering the way they drive. The most emphatic example of this that I encountered was when I came round a bend onto a reasonable straight stretch of road to find 2 buses heading down the road towards me side by side. I'm thinking 'he's going to yield, he's surely going to yield, he'll move over soon, won't he? He's not going to yield!' and so I slammed on the brakes and took to the grass by the side of the road. This is not an unusual experience.

And so, there it is, my 3 favourite experiences of driving in Sri Lanka, though there are many others I could share.

Sri Lanka - part 1

2006-01-17T19:38:00.000Z

Something that's been on my mind a lot recently is Sri Lanka. I think the main reason for this is that I'm considering my future, and it's a place I'd definitely like to live in at some stage in my life. So I've decided to do a few posts that contain some of my favourite memories of Sri Lanka. Sorry if I'm repeating myself to anyone.

Here's a handy map. How handy.

I thought the first post should really cover my arrival there in the first place. We ended up going because dad had met a guy called Rodney at a christian business conference. Rodney is a Sri Lankan pastor and evangelist, but before that he worked as a hotel manager. So he offered to organise a tour of the island for our family, and so off we went to South Asia. It was my first time out of Europe apart from a trip to the USA, so this was a real culture shock.

It was a pretty exciting moment as we flew in over the coast for the first time, and all we could see was jungle interspersed with rice paddies. Sri Lanka's airport is just south east of Negombo, if you'd like to refer to the handy map. We landed fine, though it was a bit daunting to realise this was also the main Sri Lankan Air Force base. This meant there were an awful lot of soldiers wandering around with very big guns.

Then we had our first experience of Sri Lankan timing. We were expecting that Rodney would be there to pick us up from the airport, and so we headed out into tropical heat to see nothing. He wasn't there. However there were a lot of taxi drivers who were very eager to drive us anywhere we'd care to go. The only problem was that we didn't know where we were supposed to be staying or where Rodney lived. So for what felt like hours, but I guess was about 30 minutes, we waited having no idea what to do. I'm not good in situations like that, where I really don't have a clue what to do. Fortunately Rodney then appeared, and we headed off to our hotel.

I'll never forget the journey there, as we headed down the main road. There were stalls on both sides for most of the way, and it was weird how they were all grouped together. For instance there was about half a mile where all they were selling on both sides was clay pots. Then we headed off the main road to the hotel, and it was a huge juxtaposition between the poverty we saw there and the comfort of the hotel when we arrived. And so I was in Sri Lanka...

Dude Where's My Car - a social commentary.

2006-01-15T16:42:00.000Z

Some time ago Dr Steven Atwell and I discovered that a film we'd only ever thought of as an immature tacky comedy was actually a profound critique of american teen culture. That film was Dude Where's My Car.

Our two heros Chester and Jesse, while appearing to be complete boneheads, are in fact the logical extension of an American education system that spoon feeds young people without ever encouraging them to develop enquiring, outward looking minds.

The premise of their journey is that they are looking for Jesse's car, but as with so many films of this kind the key point is the journey itself, and all the discoveries they make. Their journey takes them into the marketplace of ideas, where they find several different ideologies competing for their attention.

The first is the hot babes. They represent commercial America. They are all appearance and no substance, they make promises that appeal to the basest natures of Jesse and Chester.

Ahhh, I can't be having with this anymore. Anyone who was still reading seriously is officially gullible. It was fun winding DK up with it though....

ahhhh, noble country

2006-01-10T01:43:00.000Z

Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still, and wider, shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!

Truth and Right and Freedom, each a holy gem,
Stars of solemn brightness, weave thy diadem.

Tho' thy way be darkened, still in splendour drest,
As the star that trembles o'er the liquid West.

Throned amid the billows, throned inviolate,
Thou hast reigned victorious, thou has smiled at fate.

Land of Hope and Glory, fortress of the Free,
How may we extol thee, praise thee, honour thee?

Hark, a mighty nation maketh glad reply;
Lo, our lips are thankful, lo, our hearts are high!

Hearts in hope uplifted, loyal lips that sing;
Strong in faith and freedom, we have crowned our King!

Exec Fun

2006-01-09T00:33:00.000Z

Today has been a good day for a number of reasons. Church was excellent, a clear and challenging sermon from Dave, had some really good Chilli made by one KC Clark, got to spend some time at the pub with an old friend, and went to a party to say goodbye to someone from church who's heading off to serve with OM for two years.

However the highlight was (and apologies to all of the above) our exec reunion meal. It was one of those times which felt really blessed by God. The joy of seeing old friends, catching up on news, joking, reminiscing, it was superb. They are a truly remarkable bunch of people, and the year we spent together on committee remains one of my most positive memories. I think the most exciting thing though was that now, nearly 3 years after we finished on committee, we remain good friends, and we can reflect on how God has worked faithfully in each of our lives since then. Also, that we can be together for the first time for 6 months and yet there is total relaxation when I'm with them, it feels like we've never been apart. It makes me want to jump up and down and praise God for his faithfulness, and his provision of friends.

On a slightly more scary note, 4 out of the 8 of us are now either engaged or married. It's now a critical time. If only one more of us fails to take Paul's advice, then the singlies will suddenly be in the minority. On that day, I will feel old.

Good grief, the Americans are coming...

2006-01-01T15:02:00.000Z

I had been looking forward to the 27th December for a while. It was the date when an American invasion was due to take place, the like of which hadn't been seen in those parts before. Elvetham Heath became the hosting base for Kevin, Lauren, KC, and Rich (who although not American did speak with an American accent a lot of the time.)

I really don't know where to go from there. There's so much I could write about, it was a lot of fun. One of the continuing highlights was the fact that Kevin wanted to keep surprising Lauren with where we were going. There were so many times where we came close to giving the game away, and a couple of occasions where we actually did. There was always a great sense of relief when Kevin did tell her what the next part of the trip was going to be.

We finally managed to find the New Forest, but not many trees. The Americans were taught the essential British values of perseverance and endurance whilst walking round a pond that never seemed to end while it was freezing cold and getting dark. I hope it was a lesson well learnt.

The following day saw us in Oxford, only an hour or so from my home and yet I'd never visited. We felt suitably intellectual as we sat in the Eagle and Child, the pub that CS Lewis and Tolkien had made their favourite. Then we ended up in Blackwells, which is ENORMOUS!! At the second time of asking three of us had come away with CS Lewis books, and a mystery package (it was a mystery to me anyway.) The rest of the day featured KC drinking man beer, Rich learning what spooning was, dinner at my local, and then a trip slightly further afield to my favourite pub, which is an amazing old mill complete with water wheel.

It was a hard prospect to follow a day like that with one equally as good, but we did. The omens weren't good in the morning, it was a beautiful English winter day, apart from the darkness and freezing rain! We were joined for some of the day by Anna, a friend from Relay! (Yeah, RELAY!!) Highlights: walking to Westminster, made me feel very patriotic. British Museum, boy oh boy did we rob a lot of places. It really is an amazing place, the building, and everything in it. Dinner at a fantastic little Thai cafe, YUMMY! Scrooge the Musical (where we were sat on the very back row, about 2 miles above the stage), made me remember why I love going to the theatre, and given me a burning desire to see more plays! Touch my robe! After 8 McFlurry, cultural. It really was a brilliant day.

And finally... with 5 of us and luggage packed into Rich's Punto we did manage to get moving back to Liverpool. The mystery package turned out to be a Marmite Cookbook, hahaha, there will be no mercy! We stopped at Warwick, a town packed with history and a castle, which initially appeared to have become a McCastle, so commercialised did it seem. I did really enjoy it though, despite a lot of loud Americans (some of whom we'd brought with us). And so we came back to Liverpool, and the Breaking of the Fellowship. Thanks guys, it was ... awesome.

Festive Fun and Frolicking for the Family

2006-01-01T14:31:00.000Z

Ok, having not properly blogged for a bit this is part 1 of a festive two parter. I had the shock of my life on the day I travelled home. I'd written a list of things I needed to do, and had mentally tried to work out how long each one should take me. I had enough time ... just! The problem with these plans though is that they inevitably face diversions and distractions, and so imagine my shock when everything went exactly according to my plan and I found myself with 15 free minutes before I needed to leave the house! The shock was further increased when both trains I needed to catch arrived on time.

It's always a bit odd to go home now, as I neither live there nor am I really a visitor. It's an odd tension, and one that I haven't quite worked out how to deal with yet. Having said that it was really good to see my family and friends again. A lot of my friends have moved home and into different social groups, but we managed a couple of evenings where a few of us were together, it was lots of fun.

Boxing Day was our big family get together, and I loved it! It was hard at times becaused it was the first Christmas since Grandpa died, but generally a good time was had by all. I got given a missile launcher by my parents, the first step towards global conquest. It was also excellent to see my sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces again. Emma is now 2 and is incredibly energetic, if rather shy at times. Beth is 4 months, and a very vocal baby. She provided great dinner table entertainment by being sick over one of my cousins.

And that's my christmassy roundup.........

Pub Quotes

2005-12-30T08:45:00.000Z

My local pub, which is very good, have decided to promote intellectual discussion amongst their patrons by writing up random quotes on the walls around the pub.

Some of them come from such famous people as Benjamin Franklin:
"Beer is the proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"

However the obscure quote award goes to the following:
"To fly as fast as thought, you must begin by already knowing you have arrived."
Now the question is whether this is truly profound, and simply operates at far too high a level for me and the rabble I drag to the pub with me, or is it simply stupid? I just don't know...

The Corridors of Power, MK1

2005-12-17T00:40:00.000Z

General: Leaps tall buildings with a single bound. More powerful than a steam engine, faster than a speeding bullet. Gives policy to GOD.

Colonel: Leaps short buildings with a single bound. More powerful than a shunting engine. Is just as fast as a speeding bullet. Walks on water (if the sea is calm). Talks with GOD.

Lt.-Colonel: Leaps short buildings with a running start in favourable winds. Is almost as powerful as a speeding bullet. Walks on water in indoor swimming pools. Talks with GOD if special request is approved.

Major: Barely clears a Nissen hut. Loses tug-of-war with a steam engine. Can fire a speeding bullet and swims well. Is occasionally addressed by GOD.

Captain: Makes high marks when trying to leap tall buildings. Is run over by trains. Can sometimes handle a gun without inflicting self injury. Dog paddles, talks to animals.

Lieutenant: Runs into tall buildings. Recognises trains two out of three times. Is not issued with ammunition. Can stay afloat if properly instructed in the use of a lifejacket. Talks to walls.

2nd Lieutenant: Falls over doorsteps while trying to enter buildings. Says, "Look at Choo Choo." Is NEVER issued with a gun or ammunition. Plays in mud puddles. Mumbles to himself.

Sgt. Major: Lifts tall buildings and walks under them. Kicks steam trains off the tracks. Catches speeding bullets in his teeth and eats them. Freezes water with a single glance . . . HE IS GOD!

Sorry it's long, but it makes me laugh a lot. It's also part of a continuing Spike Milligan tribute, a very funny man, even if he didn't actually write this himself, I found it one of his books.

War and Peace

2005-12-09T22:40:00.000Z

Hear the words I sing,
War's a horrid thing,
But still I sing, sing, sing,
Ding a ling a ling.
by Private S Baldrick

Joan of Arc
Got up in the dark
And put her foot in the Po
Oh bugger she said
Connecting with the bed
Dislocating her big toe
How can I lead France
When I lead such a dance?
Her tears were beginning to flow
To hell with le Brits
They're all a lot of shits
So now we'll give them a go
So she led the French Army
Half of whom were barmy
Then a terrible blow
How was she to know
The Brits beat the frogs
Who got stuck in the bogs
Joan's end was dire
The Brits set her on fire
by Spike Milligan

Thinking about the future.

2005-12-05T23:44:00.000Z

Last weekend was a reality check. Houseparty was great, good time to hang out with people old and new, to learn stuff, a great opportunity to do a seminar on a subject i really enjoy, and a chance to think about how God guides, and the future.

Pete Roberts (thanks Pete) recommended Guidance and the voice of God, which has been good and very helpful, with incredibly short chapters. It's got me thinking about what is important, and what's not, and started me questioning (again) where I'm going in life. So far my thinking is this:Work is something that we're commanded to do, but the Bible does not tell us specifically what job we should do. I have freedom to make a (hopefully) wise decision about what I will do for a job. And so now I'm giving serious consideration and actively looking for full-time ministry jobs. It has been a helpful thing though, because it's got me thinking about what is important. I love living in Liverpool because I have a lot of good friends here, I really enjoy being part of the Tab. On the other hand it'd be nice to live somewhere that I could visit my family just for a day, I'm conscious that my nieces are growing fast and it'd be nice to have more family time, especially as I'd like to move overseas sometime.

And so there it is... today KC decided to help me plan my life with a game called MASH, which was most helpful, if not a little scary, and I've been left with a desire to buy a walrus.

Superheroes

2005-11-20T22:18:00.000Z

One of the more unexpected things in my life over the past two years has been BANG, the 11-14's group at the Tab. Jack and I both signed up to help lead in early 2004, on a trial basis. Now it is just the two of us, and neither of us are quite sure how we got here. Having said that, it has been a blessing in many ways. It is such a joy to see young people really grappling with what it means to know God, and it's also been an opportunity to learn wonderful games such as 'Bog Roll Bowling', a late contender for the 2012 Olympics. However there are definitely times when I don't feel that I want to be a youth leader, and this morning was one such occasion. Then God stepped in and changed my perspective.

I don't know what you think about when you hear the name Moses, for me it's images of him leading the Israelites out of Egypt, pleading with God on their behalf, receiving the law, his face literally glowing from having been in the presence of God.

Today we were looking at God's call on the life of Moses, and it made for some interesting reading.
God: 'And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'
It's a fairly hefty order that God has given Moses, to rescue his people from one of the most powerful nations in the world. And Moses' response:
'Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'
Now that sounds fair enough, and it's often our response to the callings that we feel God placing on our lives. God's response is clear:
'I will be with you.'
This is where the problems start. This should be enough for Moses, and it should be enough for me, but so often it isn't. Moses gives 3 other excuses for not being able to do the task that God has set before him, which end up with the slightly feeble
'O Lord, please send someone else to do it.'
How many of us can honestly identify with that?

Ultimately Moses did follow God's calling, and we know what happened then. The encouragement that I took was this; that despite Moses' sense of unworthiness and unwillingness God used him to do incredible things.

This morning I needed to be reminded that the only qualification I need is to have God with me, and to be willing to go where he calls me. Graciously he did.

Come away with me for tales of adventure and crazy neighbours (part 2)

2005-11-19T18:17:00.000Z

Ok, I'm sorry for the length of time it has taken me to write the second part of this story. It has been another interesting week, in which I have really seen God bless me in many ways, through friends and housemates, and with an amazing day in Chester. This is also a time of real testing so I would appreciate your prayers.

Thanks for all the comments and the suggestions, the squirrels are coming i promise, but here and now, this is part two of the story...

On that day most Americans were celebrating their independence from the British Empire. One person not celebrating was Crazy Anne. She was not generally in favour of celebrations, and she particularly hated fireworks, as they would terrify her cats. This was quite unfortunate because many of the local families would compete with one another to see who could put on the best firework shows. It was an intense competition, to the extent that some families would quite literally travel the length of the country to find the best fireworks.

And so, in memoriam of their war of independence, Americans seek to recreate that occasion with huge explosions. Obviously this is a somewhat dangerous occupation, and fireworks can and do go astray. The Clark family were no strangers to firework mishaps, the most interesting example of this being an occasion when a lit firework fell over pointing towards the house. The Clarks duly ran for cover, but Mr. Clark and one of their neighbours found themselves trying to get through the same door at the same time. Once they were well and truly wedged the fun really began, with the fireworks firing through their legs and into the house. Fortunately they both escaped unharmed, and undeterred by this experience they continued to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks.

On this day Crazy Anne’s fear of fireworks turned out to be quite justified. For just as she was completing a new figure of a man, made from a Cadbury wrapper discovered by chance in a local store, a firework flew through her window.

Four cats were killed instantly in the explosion, with another 12 suffering serious burns. A greater problem than the physical suffering though was the psychological damage done to all of the cats, and for years to follow they received treatment from a highly skilled pet psychologist at his home in Oregonia, pictured here.

And now I must run away, into the cold, dark night.... (more suggestions please!)

Come away with me for tales of adventure and crazy neighbours (part 1)

2005-11-10T17:20:00.000Z

In a continued bid to avoid dealing with the real world, I'm now writing a story.

The inspiration came from an MSN conversation held on a cold night in early November. Two people, let us call them person A and person K, were musing on the merits of having crazy neighbours. Person A said "ok, but i love the idea of having a crazy neighbour." The reply "ok, then run with it" set off a terrifying chain of events. This is their story:

In the rolling hill country of Ohio there lived a woman, Crazy Anne was her name, and it was well deserved. Crazy Anne lived in a shack by the River Warnock, it was a place of great beauty where otters frolicked and assorted small mammals lived out lives of peace.

For as long as anyone could remember Crazy Anne had lived in that shack, with a huge collection of stray cats as her only company. Nobody knew how she came by these cats, living in the middle of nowhere as she did, nor did they know why she made figures of men from old Cadbury wrappers. These things simply added to her mystery, and the locals were afraid to ask her, for they feared what her answers might be. Rumour had it that in her youth she was a geek, a carnival performer whose show consisted of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

Crazy Anne would probably have lived out the rest of her days in that shack, but for a hugely improbable chain of events, one that would ultimately lead her out of Ohio and into a European adventure. This is an illustration of chaos theory, and it all began with a stray firework on the 4th July 2002...

Ok, that's all I've got so far, I need ideas, inspiration, adventures. That is actually one of the dictionary definitions of geek, words are wonderful things.

Confusion

2005-11-08T23:40:00.000Z

I'm too confused to really post on the topic of confusion at the moment. It's pervading my life at every level. I like the word pervading, I want to use it more in conversation. As for confusion, watch this space!

So, for the rest of this post, I'll talk about the book I've been reading this evening, which is called Bridge-Building by Alister McGrath. It's good. Read it.

It's all about apologetics, explaining what apologetics are (which is a good start), and so far looking at their role in creating points of contact from the world to the gospel.
The opening page of chapter 1 says this:
'Effective Christian apologetics aims to locate the points at which there exists a seperation between the gospel and individuals and communities within the world, and to identify the best points at which to build bridges, in order that contact may be established. The nature and location of these gaps varies from one culture and one individual to another, as do the sites and types of the bridge which need to be built. And the Christian apologist will discover, with delight, that God has already laid the foundations for those bridges in the world and in the human heart; our responsibility is to build upon those foundations, and make the necessary connections.'

He has so far been explaining what this means, very helpfully. Again, buy it, read it.

Liverpool - as a tourist

2005-10-29T16:26:00.000+01:00

This week I had some friends from home who came to stay with me in Liverpool. It was fantastic. I really enjoyed having time to hang out with people from home, especially as it's hard to get back for an extended time now. I also enjoyed it because I got to behave as a tourist for a few days, and go back to some of my favourite Liverpool places.

On Tuesday afternoon we went up to the beach at Freshfields, which is definitely one of my top places to go. I've been there in every season, during the day and at night. It is amazing! On Tuesday it was really blowing a gale, and we were pretty much the only people there. It was the kind of wind that wants to blow you over, and let you know who's boss. It was causing some good sized waves as well, and the sun was just threatening to come out from behind the clouds. It felt a bit like the beach from the beginning of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and was so much fun to race the waves and jump about like a kid!

On Wednesday we went to the cathedrals. I love the Anglican Cathedral, it always inspires me, and reminds me of the creativity that man has been given. One of these days I'm going to either move there, or build my own.

Those were definitely the highlights of this week, though it has been fun generally. Lots of good conversations, and time spent with people, which is always fun. And Liar Liar...

Different ways of doing things

2005-10-27T23:26:00.000+01:00

British:
Crossing the Atlantic single-handed is a challenge attempted by only the greatest yachtsmen and women. The most important of these for us is the immortal Mr Sebury who made two historic attempts.
On 31 August 1986, he set sail from Newport, Gwent, in a fifteen-foot sloop specially equipped with a bucket full of cheese, five litres of orange juice and an ordnance survey map of the Welsh coast. Three days later he found himself adrift with his mast down and engine broken. He got just beyond the Bristol Channel, where he became a martyr to seasickness and moored the boat in the middle of a Royal Naval Torpedo range. When an official craft went out to warn him, they found Mr Sebury slumped on the side of the vessel shouting: 'Take me ashore and sink the boat.'
Encouraged by this, he made a second attempt to cross the Atlantic later that year and got as far as Milford Haven.

American:
The building of a new staff canteen in 1977 gave the US Department of Agriculture the opportunity to commemorate a famous nineteenth-century Colorado pioneer.
Amidst a blaze of enthusiastic publicity the Agriculture Secretary, Robert Bergland, opened 'The Alfred Packer Memorial Dining Facility', with the words 'Alfred Packer exemplifies the spirit and fare that this agriculture department cafeteria will provide.'
Several months later the cafeteria was renamed when it was discovered that Packer had been convicted of murdering and eating five prospectors in 1874.

These stories were taken from the Return of Heroic Failures, which will be available for further reading in our toilet.

Affection

2005-10-22T19:07:00.000+01:00

"It is affection that teaches us first to notice, then to endure, then to smile at, then to enjoy, and finally to appreciate, the people who 'happen to be there'. Made for us? Thank God, no. They are themselves, odder than you could have believed and worth far more than we guessed" CS Lewis - The Four Loves p.46

I just finished reading The Four Loves and would recommend it to anyone. I'm a big CS Lewis fan anyway, but I thought this was brilliant. One of the big themes is 'Love, having become a god, becomes a demon', which basically means we musn't swap God is Love into Love is God, and the disasters that will follow if we do.

This part about affection is one of my favourites, because it expresses so much more clearly than I ever could something I've been discovering since I've been placed in school.

I had the luxury of reading about two thirds of it in one sitting on the train home yesterday, which means I'm now back in beautiful Hampshire. It's great to be home, my brother in law is away for the weekend so my sister is staying at my parents as well, so it's plenty of excellent family time, and more of a chance to get to know my nieces.

And so I'll stop blogging and go and see them...

5 reasons why I love Radiohead

2005-10-19T21:22:00.000+01:00

Granted they aren't the most cheery band in the world, but they do write some fantastic lyrics. Also, I've heard some amazing versions of their songs played just using the piano, if anyone knows where I could find them again, please let me know. And now, over to Radiohead:

1: Where I end and you begin
i can watch but not take part
where i end and where you start
where you, you left me alone
you left me alone.

2: Karma Police
Karma police
arrest this girl,
her Hitler hairdo
is making me feel ill
and we have crashed her party.

3: The Bends
I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain
Cos I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath
But who are my real friends
Have they all got the bends
Am I really sinking this low

4: Myxomatosis
"now no one likes a smart arse but we all like stars"
that wasn't my intention, I did it for a reason
it must have got mixed up
strangled, beaten up
i got myxomatosis
i got myxomatosis

5: Fake plastic trees
She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

Art

2005-10-18T20:47:00.000+01:00

Today I rediscovered on of my favourite websites, and I'd like to make a tribute to the everyday happenings of Weebl and sometimes Weeb's friend Bob. It is a marvellous series, starting with the ever popular pie, and containing my personal favourite art

Art is a wonderful attempt to solve the mysteries of life through the discussion of pie, a most philosophically enlightening adventure.

In other news: Marmite; you either love it or you hate it. Some people hate it because their first experience of this most lovely of God's foods is eating a whole teaspoonful of it. Sorry about that! I hadn't quite anticipated the effect it would have.

And now I'm going to run away, having successfully achieved my goal of writing a short(ish) blog entry. Hurrah!

Home Alone - with the Truman Show

2005-10-15T16:35:00.000+01:00

Home Alone

This weekend my housemates have all headed off to Edinburgh, so the house is very quiet. It's made me realise how much I dislike living alone, and how much I appreciate the Bulls of Bashan.

Today I have been watching the Truman Show, which is undoubtedly one of my favourite films, and it got me thinking (along 1984 lines). For me, the best part of the film comes in the interview on Trutalk, where the interviewer asks Christof (the show's creator) "Why do you think that Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world, until now?". Christof replies "We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that."

Whether you agree with it or not, it is a strong statement. And in the Truman Show the problems for Christof begin when Truman begins to question the reality of the world with which he is presented. When he is no longer content to accept that this is simply the way that things are he begins to discover the truth.
In 1984 the problem that the Thought Police have with Winston is that he isn't able to simply accept as truth the pronouncements of Big Brother, but realises that the world does not necessarily correspond to the descriptions of authority.

What's the point? Well the temptation of any body in authority is to present their truth as absolute, and to resist any questioning of that truth. A recent example of that might be the war in Iraq, the Government made bold statements about the threat that Iraq posed, and the public were not supposed to question their conclusions. The Church has to put it's hand up and admit that we have not always encouraged people to question the truth that is presented in the Bible, particularly historically where people were not supposed to study the Bible individually, but rather to accept the pronouncements of those in authority, even to the extent of actively suppressing any other view.

And another case? Well perhaps the contemporary discussion of evolution. I have yet to read Richard Dawkins advocating any search for real absolute truth, I have only heard him requiring that people accept evolution as absolute truth, and that any who question that are simply wrong. Now this has nothing to do with the scientific merit of evolution, but rather an attitude that suggests that there is truth that cannot be questioned.

In other news ... I now have a timetable for which lessons I will be teaching in school, which has been fantastic as I can now get to grips with the reality of actually planning and teaching lessons. Slightly less fun is the fact that I will be teaching Reproduction to Year 7 (oh, the giggles!

Royal Opera House - scene of luxury

2005-10-11T18:33:00.000+01:00

I was looking at various shows around London at Christmas time, and one of the shows that looked vaguely interesting was The Nutcracker, all sounds very nice, very classy very cultural!

Amazingly, there were tickets available at a bargain 15 pounds. Excellent, so I add 3 to my basket. At the next stage it tells you what seats you will be allocated, along with a hyperlink entitled 'information' which proved to be very enlightening.

It said: "Restricted: WALL/SIDE/ Tall Loose Seat - View: The view of the stage is obstructed by the WALL in front of this seat. Restricted due to a SIDE view of the stage. Seat Type: A seat about the height of a bar stool. It has a foot rest but no arm rests. It is not fixed to the floor."

In other words, you're sitting on a stool with a wall in front of you. Still, it's a Royal Opera House stool, which has got to have a much greater cultural value than almost any comparable stool.

In the end I bought tickets to Scrooge: The Musical, which frankly deserves a blog entry of it's own.

I was also treated last night to the sight of the Agape team doing skits, I'll never forget Kevin the Cheerleader. I was also treated to a trip to the Richmond Tavern with Dr Steven Attwell, a man who upon learning that i was from Hampshire (this was the first time I met him, the first day I moved into halls) declared "loads of money", rubbed his hands together and then walked off. As you can imagine, it was a most enlightening evening.

p.s. the best 'river pollution' word was liverpool, the longest is revolution.

GM enhanced conkers - the new superweapon?

2005-10-10T08:27:00.000+01:00

Today Dick and I introduced KC to the game of conkers. It was all going so well. I managed to find a good sized screw to make holes in them, then found some string I never knew we had. Everything was set for the magical experience of a game of conkers to take place. Except for one thing...

Conkers in Liverpool are not normal conkers. They do not break under (almost) any circumstance. For well over 30 minutes Dick and KC fought a savage conker battle, and at the end of it neither had managed to emerge victorious. There were many excellent hits, each of them had their conker fall to the floor several times from the force of hits being meted out and yet the conkers remained intact. There are 3 possible explanations for this:

1) Dick and I have become much much weaker than we were at the age of 11 when we last played conkers, and hence are unable to land a killer blow (after 30 minutes I subbed in for Dick).

2) We are all incredibly bad conker players, and any assault on the world championship is destined to remain a mere dream.

3) (And by far my favourite) We encountered a rogue bunch of GM enchanced SUPER CONKERS!!!!! These are no ordinary conkers, they have been developed by the military in a top secret research project. They are intended to be an organic form of body armour, able to repel almost any projectile. Their presence in Liverpool remains somewhat of a mystery, but it is quite possible that in the post Cold-War era the military have decided to test these conkers out in a civilian environment, using an age-old game played by millions across the country.

In other news, I have decided that falling asleep with my music on is a bad idea (sorry Danny!), Britney M Lenhoff is composing a poem based on the theme of river pollution, a British accent will always carry an argument, and that in the wake of Hurricane Katrina George W Bush has added God to the Axis of Evil, along with Iran, Syria, and France.

1966 and all that

2005-10-09T05:37:00.000+01:00

Wow. I've discovered that life sometimes gets busy enough that blogging can't happen. I think this is a good thing. The eagle has landed. I've also found myself thinking of events as potential blog entries, which is really odd.

School this week has been an odd mix of things. On Thursday I was shadowing a student for the whole day, so I went to my first geography lesson for 10 years, The starter activity was to make as many 4-or-more letter words as possible from 'river pollution'. The best I could come up with was a 10 letter word, come on guys, make me proud, answers on a comment!
The evenings have been a good mix of things, with the start of Christianity Explored, and a very long trip to Kensington which left Steve Atwell sat in the pub on his own for half an hour with only two drinks to keep him company.

Today has been really cool. I met up with Jack this morning, which was cool. It was great to have a chance to catch up, eat some breakfast, and pray. Also went to the Maritime Museum for the first time, which had guns and torpedoes, always a good sign for any museum.

It has been excellent to talk about 1984 with KC, and consider what freedom means, and also the comparisons from Big Brother to God and Satan. The big thing i've been thinking about now is that it would be hard to say that Winston was free, the observations by Big Brother allowed them to manipulate every event in his life. As Christians we believe that God observes every action in our life, and has the ability to intervene in the world in any way that he chooses. Are we then truly free? And yet that is what the Bible affirms. It has started to make sense. If we really believe that God sees everything that we do, and that it matters, and that he has sent his Son to die for us, then this should affect how we behave. However we are free to deny God, to pretend that he isn't there, or to pretend that what we do doesn't matter. So that's the challenge, do we accept the external reality that 2+2=4, that God is watching, and what we do does matter, or we can create our own subjective reality in which we deny these things, which might be pleasing/easy at the time, but ultimately means living a lie.
Sorry for the excessive stream of conciousness there, I hope it didn't contain too much heresy.

And now I'm going to run away. The iron is hot!

Super Gran

2005-10-04T20:53:00.000+01:00

For the past few years my parents have gone away on holiday with my grandma and grandpa. Grandpa was always a bit of a traditionalist (for example he carried on calling countries the names the Brits had given them) and so they would go to places like France and Switzerland. Grandpa died in February, but my parents decided to ask if grandma would like to go away somewhere anyway. So, after thinking about it for a while, she decided that a trip to the USA was what she'd really like to do, and so my parents and grandma have been doing a road trip from San Francisco to LA over the last two weeks.

I was talking to my parents last night after they got back, and I'd like to share with you one highlight that I consider worthy of special mention:
They went to Universal Studios and my grandma, who is 82, went on a rollercoaster for the first time in her life. What's more, she enjoyed it enough to go on several others as well. I really hope they took pictures. This is why I nominate her as Super Gran.

In Liverpool life is quiet. Today I've been feeling particularly infectious (stupid kids and their stupid germs), so I ended up getting a chance to finish reading 1984 by George Orwell. I have to say I didn't enjoy it as much as the first time I read it, but it's still a cracking book. A most scary picture of life as it might have been, the idea that history is whatever people believe it to be, and if you can control the written records and peoples minds then that is absolute power. It's amazing how the concept has been trivialised into Big Brother, although interesting that not only does Big Brother have control over the housemates, he also has control over what we know about their world through choosing what to show us.

And on that note I'm off to check the house for hidden microphones (does anyone else think they're living in the Truman Show?)

The wise man goes when he can

2005-10-04T03:55:00.000+01:00

Having allowed a period of 2 and a half months to pass without developing a blog obsession i feel it may now be safe to write another entry. The problem is, I'm not really sure what to write about.

This entry will contain nothing relating to it's title, but will in fact contain a bit of a rant about my day. This morning we had a two and a half hour session on classroom management, during which i learnt precisely nothing (not being big headed but we'd done exactly the same thing the week before!) Add to that the fact that I was very undisciplined last night and stayed up till past 1 on MSN (which was most entertaining), and today was most painful.

It has however been made better this afternoon. We had MENS TIME, which involved eating chicken burgers and looking at Psalms 1 and 2. It was brilliant to have time to reflect on God's word, and to see that the blessed man is the one who meditates on God's word and trusts in God's anointed king. Also to see that God is sovereign over all things, and though all the nations and kings may conspire against him God can sit in heaven laughing at them.

And on that note I'll finish. I would appreciate any comments, and suggestions for things that I could write about.

Welcome to my underground lair

2005-07-14T19:41:00.000+01:00

I'm at home and rather bored so have decided to start a Blog. I feel like I've entered the world of Dave Weaver, a slightly unexpected twist.